Does Kaduna State University need overhaul?

We refer to recent newspaper publications of Saturday, 12th November, 2011 and Tuesday, 22nd November, 2011 titled “Kaduna State University in Need of Over-hall” credited to one Jerry Adams. The other write up is a letter written to His Excellency titled “Petition against Some Hausa Traders in Kafanchan Planning to Breach the Peace by Resisting […]

We refer to recent newspaper publications of Saturday, 12th November, 2011 and Tuesday, 22nd November, 2011 titled “Kaduna State University in Need of Over-hall” credited to one Jerry Adams. The other write up is a letter written to His Excellency titled “Petition against Some Hausa Traders in Kafanchan Planning to Breach the Peace by Resisting Relocation to the Two Approved Temporary Markets in Kafanchan and other Issues” credited to a group that called itself Sothern Kaduna Progressive Alliance (SKAPA). Although, many issues were raised in the letter, we are bringing up the matter here because some of the issues concerned Kaduna State University and have a strong link with the contents of the two publications made in the newspapers.

We are not surprised however that these issues are raised now for the simple reason that the present Vice Chancellor is completing his tenure by the end of December, 2011 and hence the petitioners felt that time is ripe for them to start hatching their plans on how to capture the leadership of the university. If the petitioners were sincere, these issues would have been raised much earlier than now, say about two to three years ago.

The petitioners did not come out directly to indicate their need in the two publications made in the New Nigerian, though they have made a signal, but they have categorically stated what they want in the petition they personally wrote to His Excellency. In the petition to His Excellency, they claimed that the Kaduna State University management is dominated by Zaria people and went ahead to pick some names and mischievously refused to include the names of some management members, and even tagged some in the list with wrong Local Government Areas in order to portray their claim that all the management members are from Zaria.

There are seventeen management committee members in Kaduna State University who meet from time to time to take decisions on matters of administration of the university. The list of office holders in the management committee and the Local Government Areas and Senatorial Zones of the people presently occupying these offices is as follows:

Central Senatorial Zone – 3 People, Northern Senatorial Zone – 5 people, Southern Senatorial Zone  – 8 people.

As indicated above, the distribution of the management staff members of the university shows that there are only 3 people from the central senatorial zone and 5 from the northern senatorial zone, while there are 8 from the southern senatorial zone alone. With this therefore, which zone dominated the management committee of the university?

Let us consider the distribution of Principal Officers of Kaduna State University by zone. Among the management committee members listed above, the first six are principal officers as provided in the law of the University. The distribution of the principal officers is as follows:

Central Senatorial Zone: 2 people (DVC Academic and Registrar) Northern Senatorial Zone: 2 people (Vice Chancellor and Librarian) Southern Senatorial Zone: 2 people (DVC Administration and Bursar) As we can see, therefore, the present distribution of principal officers of the University is equal across the 3 senatorial zones of the state. Thus, in accordance with the policy of equitable distribution in matters of staff appointment and student’s admission among the three zones of the state as made and followed by the Council and Senate of the University, it is always expected that whenever a vacancy exists, the zone(s) with a shortfall at the particular point in time should be given priority once they have a qualified person(s).

What baffles most of us however is what seems to be a situation in which the Government has started dancing to the tune of the petitioners or probably it is also part of the plan. We are saying this because of some abnormal or awkward decisions taken by the Government after the petition is made, some of which are: Firstly, the abrupt dissolution of the University Council, most probably because the Chairman of the Council is a Zaria man as complained by the petitioners. Secondly, the stoppage of the process of electing a new Vice Chancellor after the process had begun, most probably because the plan of the petitioners or “Government” may not work out, if due process is allowed to be followed as provided for in the law of the university. The issue of visitation panel to the university, which was given as a reason for putting on hold the process of electing a new Vice Chancellor does not hold water, because visitation panels to universities in Nigeria are not new things and there was never a time, any university in Nigeria was directed to stop any of its activities as provided for by law, because a visitation panel is sent to the university. This has happened here probably because there is a hidden agenda that is being hatched now.

Another issue complained by the petitioners is the location of Kaduna State University in Kaduna town, which they said is wrong. According to them, the University should have been located in the southern zone. This shows the highest order of selfishness and mischief of the petitioners such that they do not give any thought to an issue before complaining. It is a fact that there is no tertiary institution owned by Kaduna State Government, and located in either northern or central senatorial zone, which does not have a similar one or at least a campus in the southern senatorial zone.

Uthman bin Fodio said “The crown of the leader is his integrity, his strong-hold is his impartiality and his wealth is the prosperity of his people”.

Abu Salma wrote from E85 Ja Abdulkadir, Unguwan Rimi, Kaduna